Cryogenic processes and fire activity in a high Atlantic mountain area in NW Iberia (Picos de Europa) during the Mid-Late Holocene.

Mid-Late Holocene environmental changes in the Cantabrian Mountains are a consequence of both climate variability and human activity. A 182cm-long sedimentary sequence was collected from Belbín depression, Western Massif of Picos de Europa (Cantabrian Mountains, NW Spain), in order to reconstruct Holocene environmental dynamics and the factors triggering landscape changes in the area. Using multi-proxy analysis of the uppermost 60cm of the sediments (texture, organic matter content, quartz grains microstructures, charcoal deposition) together with three C AMS dates, a sequence of alternating warmer and colder phases has been inferred for the last ca.